An Overview of Postmodernism

2184 Words5 Pages

The political climate at the beginning of the 1940’s and the changes taking place all around the world drastically influenced the face of contemporary society. The invasion of Poland by Germany on 1st of September 1939 was the first stone thrown in the face of freedom of expression and liberty out of the many that followed for the next decades. The dawn of the Second World War was one of the premises that forced many European artists, pioneers par excellence in their field, through their French or German inherited status, to immigrate across the ocean. Due to the exile, the art centre also moved overseas, from Paris to New York, offering a new opportunity for American art to be the initiator in what was generally accepted as the new tendencies in arts. These changes brought new opportunities for the other social categories to express themselves. From feminists to gay, African-Americans to Mexican immigrants, gradually, these groups found an open window towards freedom of expression in arts and literature alongside their fight for social inclusion and acceptance. It is in this background that Postmodernism started taking shape and became a common ground on which practitioners from all social domains would produce their work. There are many voices debating the meanings of postmodernism, discussing its validity or simply denying it. Some claim that it never happened while some are daring enough to put a clear beginning date on it or its deadline. One might say that the invalidity of postmodernism that some critics claimed might be, paradoxically, a characteristic of the movement.

According to the Oxford Dictionary (2010), postmodernism is:

“a late 20th -century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, whi...

... middle of paper ...

...20web/WNL%20contents.htm-Accessed November 2010

Bate, David, 2005, After Postmodernism?, Essay

http://www.lensculture.com/bate1.html - Accessed 26 November 2010

Eshelman, Raoul, Performatism, or the End of Postmodernism, Anthropoetics 6, no. 2 (Fall 2000 / Winter 2001)

http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0602/perform.htm - Accessed 29 October 2010

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/karl-shapiro

The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin: Published essays, 1966-1985

By Eric Voegelin, Ellis Sandoz

http://books.google.com/books?id=5qebtKOVjJUC&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=Every+single+man+is+but+a+blind+link+in+the+chain+of+absolute+necessity+by+which+the+world+builds+itself+forth+(+sich+fortbildet+).+Th&source=bl&ots=TEpqIFxfJz&sig=jDKxs_rxzTnPTJunS1ZtLyHxolQ&hl=en&ei=jQU4TeuVFMTPhAfW15zGCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

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